General Public $20
Full-Time Students $12
Full-Time NU Students $8 in advance, $12 at the door
A per ticket service charge will be added to all online ($3 per ticket) and phone ($2 per ticket) purchases.
6 Tickets for $130
Use Them Your Way
The Wirtz Center FLEXPASS gives you six tickets you can redeem any way you choose—use one at a time or all at once. Share with friends, mix and match performances, and enjoy maximum flexibility at a discounted price.
Performances
Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Panel discussion
Saturday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m., Room 206
An interactive performance where story, video games, and AI collide, questioning the ethics of digital resurrection and the weight of loss: If we could bring back the dead, even as data, should we?
Created by Cole Lewis, Patrick Blenkarn, Sam Ferguson
Produced by Guilty by Association
Co-produced by The Elbow Theatre and STUDIO FUNFUG
Under the glow of a flickering screen, a daughter reconstructs her deceased father. Pixel by pixel, contradiction by contradiction. 2021 is a live performance where theatre, AI, and video game storytelling converge, blurring the boundary between human remembrance and machine logic. An audience member steps into the role of Brian, an unhoused veteran reliving his final weeks inside a looping digital hospital: a labyrinth of corridors, bureaucratic dead ends, and fleeting human contact. Guided by his daughter’s narration, fragments of data become playable memory. Each decision glitches reality a little more. How do we provide dignity in death to those we fundamentally disagree with? Part elegy, part experiment, 2021 exposes the tenderness and terror of digital resurrection. It asks not whether machines can think, but whether memory itself is a kind of simulation.
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre of Canada’s National Creation Fund and Theater Mitu
2021 is visiting through the Wirtz Artist in Residence program.
Approximate run time: 90-120 minutes, variable based on audience participation. No intermission
Suggested ages: 14+
A Note on Sensitive Content is available for this production.
Join us for a panel discussion
Saturday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. , Room 206
Presence in the Machine: Video Games, AI, and the Promise of Live Performance
What can live performance learn from game design, and what dangers lie in inviting artificial intelligence onto the stage? Presence in the Machine examines how artists are navigating new technologies—from interactive gaming mechanics to conversational AI—while maintaining a commitment to embodied performance in physical, shared space.
Panelists include:
Dr. Sepehr Vakil, Associate Professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, where he is the faculty director of the Center for Technology, Policy, and Opportunity, and the M.S program in Technology, People, and Policy.
David Feiner, Co-Founder, and Director of Innovation & Advancement for Albany Park Theatre Project
Patrick Blenkarn (co-creator, 2021) a Canadian artist working at the intersection of performance, game design, and visual art; a co-founder of STUDIO FUNFUG
Patrick Jagoda, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, English and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago; co-founder of the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab; faculty director of the Weston Game Lab; director of the Media Arts and Design program at the University of Chicago.
Michelle Houle, playwright of Slutbot, part of the Wirtz Center Chicago’s 2026 fall season.
